Stephen Volk has long been a master of the art of chilling the reader's blood — as his latest piece, while modest in length, demonstrates. His continuing ability to hone his prose (so that not a word is wasted in delivering the impact on the reader) is undimmed. In fact, The Little Gift reads very much like one of the early stories in Herbert Van Thal's fondly remembered Pan Book of Horror Stories series in its quiet but powerful effect . . .